A reminder that I'm human

Well, I guess it was time for me to be reminded of my humanness. It’s been a good 3-4 years so I apparently I was due. However, the last time I was reminded, it was in the middle of the night and no one was around. Same is true for the reminder a few years before that, not dark but I was alone. Guess I was saving up for a doozy!

When I’m referring to my “humanness,” I mean the whole concept that once you become an adult you basically remain upright 99% of the time, unless you choose to sit or lay down. Reminders that I’m human are when all of the sudden, my adult body suddenly plummets to the ground without my permission. Now if I choose to fall for whatever odd reason, like a slip ‘n slide or sledding, whatever, that’s different. But when I am going about my daily routine and out of the blue collapse onto the ground, that, my friends, is a reminder that I’m human and as much I think I do have control of my circumstances as far as walking and standing, I obviously do NOT.

And when I say “saving up for a doozy,” I mean I fell in front of a crowd. And not an elderly crowd that may understand my issues with balance, but rather a teenage crowd that believes in the theory “laugh first, ask if you’re okay second”. If you must know, I performed my ice skating/dance routine in front of the entire high school volleyball team to be exact.

There I was, like usual, going about my merry way, helping serve at the team dinner, something I’ve done a dozen or more times. One minute I was completely vertical, in total control of myself, cleaning up the food tables, while chit chatting with the other moms, and a few seconds later, I found myself awkwardly sliding around on some spilled water on the floor. I didn’t know what happened! I was simply trying to make my way to the trash can to throw away some plastic jugs, and the next thing I know, my right leg is headed off one direction and my left leg was going the opposite direction and before I knew it, my hands slammed the empty, plastic juice containers on the hard, tile floor and there I plopped.

I remember my brain saying when it realized my right foot jetting off sideways, “Ummm, we’re not stopping here? We’re going down!” My left knee stepped in to try and stop the chaos before I did the splits, which would have caused major damage because “limber” has been thrown out of my body vocab years ago. But basically the direct hit just forced the rest of me to start tipping over and that’s when the arms flew out in a secondary effort to save me, very loudly slapping the plastic jugs on the floor directing ALL attention in the room to the ice skating camel at center stage.

When I was all the way down and realized the ship survived with minimal damage, I began to laugh. Like ugly face laugh, crying laughing! Not only could I believe that I had literally wiped out in front of the whole team, but immediately, I imagined how stupid I must have looked and the visual in my mind was hilarious! Which apparently I was correct as I stood up and looked around the room and saw 30 some odd laughing girls, including my totally humiliated daughter right up front.

So what else does a person do when they fall in front of a crowd? Yes…..I took a bow! Two, to be exact. “ Ta da!!! And for my second act, I’ll be performing magic tricks!” And then after I hunted down the evil water puddle on the floor that started all this mess, I finished cleaning up and laughed my way out the door and into my truck. I laughed all the way home, all evening at home and clear up to when I went to bed. I told everyone I came in contact with about it. My daughter couldn’t stop laughing either. It really was great! I was embarrassed, don’t get me wrong, but since I was essentially injury free, it was classic! And for me and my daughter, what a hilariously, wonderful reminder of my humanness we got to share together! But I hope the next reminder is a tad less showy!